Former PlayStation Boss Shawn Layden: Console Hardware has Plateaued - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 01 November 2024 / 3,062 Views
Former PlayStation boss Shawn Layden in an interview with VideoGamesChronicle at Gamescom Asia was asked about the power of consoles and he said the hardware has reached a precipice and things cannot continue as before.
"We’ve done these things this way for 30 years, every generation those costs went up and we realigned with it," said Layden. "We’ve reached the precipice now, where the center can’t hold, we cannot continue to do things that we have done before."
He added, "It’s time for a real hard reset on the business model, a hard reset on what it is to be a video game. It’s not 80 hours, it’s not 90 hours, but if it is that’s a whole different category."
When it comes to future hardware he said, "it has plateaued."
"We’re at the stage of hardware development that I call 'only dogs can hear the difference,'" he said. "If you’re playing your game and sunlight is coming through your window onto your TV, you’re not seeing any ray tracing. It has to be super optimal… you have to have an 8K monitor in a dark room to see these things.
"We’re fighting over teraflops and that’s no place to be. We need to compete on content. Jacking up the specs of the box, I think we’ve reached the ceiling."
He concluded, "That race is nearly over, and you know who won? AMD."
Sony Interactive Entertainment is releasing the mid-generation upgrade to the PlayStation 5, the PS5 Pro, on November 7 for $699.99 / £699.99 / €799.99 / ¥119,980.
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can contact the author on Twitter @TrunksWD.
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Guy's saying the thing we want to hear, but do the guys up top hear it?
Well the pricing has not plateaued it seems
There is a lot more to take from this whole article than was is summarised here.
For example: "It’s time for a real hard reset on the business model, a hard reset on what it is to be a video game. It’s not 80 hours, it’s not 90 hours, but if it is that’s a whole different category."
I'm not even sure what of this means but reading the article in full it's in context of "... that in order for the console market to remain healthy, they must also appeal to a broad audience and consumers who weren’t previously players."
Isn't this the same mentality that has occurred over the last 2 decades? Sony's PS2 success with party gaming and Wii's just existence didn't come from games looking the best, appealing to dedicated gamers, it was everyone else. MS isn't in the market to win over gamers, it was to be the item you have attached to your TV in the living room.
Lower the price of entry, and things will pick up.
That's the problem. Platform holders CAN'T lower the price of entry anymore. That's what certain execs have been trying to say that prices are too high and they can't subsidize consoles as they used to. Which is why the PS5 Pro is priced as it is. Sony doesn't want to take a loss on it.
We can't think about what has worked for the past 2 decades anymore because those days are gone now.
There are many questions to this, like why can't they? Pro specs make it expensive because it's modern spec, top notch. Pro last gen came out at a similar increase right? But it's release price was similar to fat PS4 release price but fat PS5 is the same cost as PS5 slim right now so pro is naturally going to be more expensive.
Switch is 7 years old, are we to assume parts aren't cheaper now? Or is Nintendo just trying to maximise profits while they can? What is keeping certain games like Breath of the Wild £60 on their store? God of War is £16.
Not taking a loss is fine but this is the first gen where costs of console haven't gone down to allow entry for casuals, it's all well and good trying to appeal to a different audience by that audience aren't going to spend £450 on a PS5 or even £280 on a Switch to play the AA games he's talking about anyway.
So instead, Sony (at least) are appealing to the elite gamers who are willing to spend that money. Right?
There are things that are outside of platform holders control on top for the first time in modern tech history, we've kind of reached a ceiling when it comes to hardware power.
I can only speak from personal experience when it comes to components because I work in Networking, so I routinely have to see about purchasing new equipment or purchasing individual components that need replacing. Over the past several years, primarily since 2020, costs have continued to go up (doubling and even tripling at times) and I'm never given any sort of explanation as to why.
I have no doubt this plays as a big factor since nearly all the components and hardware I get comes from Taiwan, Japan, or China. Which are countries where all game consoles are made. So you have pricing increases in every industry (tech being hit especially hard) and then there's currencies failing causing an increase in currency exchange rates for every console purchase. Which is commonly given as a reason why continued cost increases have happened in certain countries. (Japan and now South Korea have PS5 increases again after just 2 years because of exchange rates)
Then there's the matter of console hardware hitting a ceiling. When just last gen we had graphically intensive games such as TLOU Part 2 releasing on hardware from 2013, how do you start to top that? By increasing framerates, adding ray tracing, and all this other eye candy. You can't do that on traditional console hardware because of the amount of computing power needed. Graphical jumps going forward with a new generation of consoles will be minimal now, so platform holders have to look elsewhere to justify their next gen consoles to consumers. A big reason why the power race needs to stop because these graphical techniques require a LOT of horsepower and is why consoles are becoming more and more like gaming PCs. This is where AI upscaling tech like DLSS, FSR, or PSSR will play a big part going forward. Rather than depend purely on horsepower, you depend on AI to help bring console prices back down.
So you have these combination of things for a perfect storm that execs like Layden see happening.
I figured that to be the case and why platform holders are betting more on lower spec'd hardware/handhelds, with heavy bets on AI technologies to alleviate the costs while providing solid performance and image quality going forward.
If I understand this article right, PS6 should be something like the Wii was for Nintendo, coming from GameCube. Almost no upgrade in power, but a different way in playing games. I don't know if Sony really wants to try that approach. Nintendo had almost nothing to lose back in the days, but Sony's current console sales are pretty solid.
Nintendo won, not AMD, because Nintendo got out of this crazy race a long time ago and now they are fully-equipped for this moment.
I think this points to a longer current consoles cycle. Something I welcome if true.
Well, I'm just glad I got to be a part of the golden era (Atari-PS2). If it collapses, it was a hell of a ride. I still have all those consoles and their games. They will provide me with joy for the rest of my life.
